Abstract
This research aimed to identify the critical barriers of the circular economy (CE) within South African manufacturing companies, and further model the barriers and risks in the CE. A literature review was done to identify the barriers and risks of CE in the context of South Africa. It was used as an input in the interpretive structural modelling (ISM) technique. According to the ISM model, which was constructed in this study, the lack of support from top management was a bottom-level barrier, indicating that it had a substantial impact on the system. The twelve barriers were divided into five stages in this concept. This study discovered that the key challenges to CE adoption in the manufacturing industry were a lack of communication, support from top management and technical knowledge, as well as environmental, operational and financial risks which should be considered for future research. The lack of communication had a huge impact on the whole system, indicating that it should be prioritised. Top management should act on new innovative models and develop plans to continuously enhance the CE system. In addition, they should focus on creating a collaborative platform to promote high-tech research and development. A performance management system for monitoring all actions in the supply chain system is needed. Manufacturing companies should focus on having regulations in place and further adopt the regulations enforced by government and policymakers. In this research, the authors extended the existing knowledge base by formulating an ISM approach that determined the interrelationships among barriers in the context of South Africa.
Keywords: Circular economy, Barriers, Risks, Interpretive structural modelling, South Africa